It is known that in humans, infection with the pathogenic Helicobacter pylori can cause gastritis, and lead to ulcerative disease and gastric tumors. The methods of treatment are numerous. It has been shown previously in U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,302 (Nestlé) that lactic acid bacteria are able to inhibit Helicobacter pylori both in vitro and in vivo.
Domestic carnivores such as dogs and cats are virtually all infected with other species of gastric Helicobacters. Most of them cannot be cultured in vitro, but morphologically resemble H. heilmannii. H. felis was also isolated from cat gastric mucosa and, recently, two new Helicobacter species, named H. bizzozeronii and H. salomonis, were isolated from dogs. However, the only morphological analysis does not allow one to discriminate between these Helicobacter species and are grouped under the denomination of “Gastric Helicobacter like organisms” (GHLOs).
GHLOs colonize the antrum and/or the corpus of pets while H. pylori colonization mainly takes place in the corpus. Colonizing GHLOs organisms are located deep in the gastric fundic glands and sometimes are found actually within gastric parietal cell canaliculi as well as in the pits and gastric mucus, compared to H. pylori which is known as a non-invasive bacteria. (Dunn et al, 1997: “Hp are located in the mucus adherent to the surface epithelium and are often found deep within the crypts” . . . )
The contamination of cat and dog stomach by Helicobacter species is considered as an important risk factor to develop mild to moderate gastritis. The inflammation observed is usually less severe than the one occurring in human infected with H. pylori. More severe lesions such as stomach ulcers, lymphomas and cancers can be observed but the pathogenicity of GHLOs is far from being clarified.
Nevertheless, controlling the infection by GHLOs in cat and dog to a low level is recognized by most veterinarians as a benefit. Since it is not a fully recognized disease requiring drug therapy, a food product containing an active ingredient capable of minimizing GHLO infection in cats and dogs is mostly required. The present invention now addresses this need.